


we should just kiss like real people do

by axsun



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/F, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, but like very soft, mostly comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:41:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25174060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/axsun/pseuds/axsun
Summary: Emily has a very important question.
Relationships: Jennifer "JJ" Jareau/Emily Prentiss
Comments: 13
Kudos: 149





	we should just kiss like real people do

**Author's Note:**

> takes place roughly two years after s15 finale. emily has been promoted to fbi director and jj succeeds her as unit chief.

“Can I kiss you?”

“Hm?”

Emily clears her throat awkwardly, and her cheeks warm. This time, her voice comes out a bit more clear, if not still a bit timid.

“Can I kiss you?”

A pause, and Emily braces for the worst. This time, JJ sets down her novel on her nightstand and turns to face her, her eyebrow quirked in iconic questioning fashion, and her eyes glimmer with amusement.

“Em, we’ve been married for three years,” she says. “Why wouldn’t you be able to kiss me?”

“Ah— I don’t know, I just wanted to ask.”

JJ stifles a laugh, rolling her eyes, and Emily exhales, lips curling up in a slight smile.

“Yes, you can kiss me.”

And so Emily leans over and presses a gentle kiss to her wife’s cheek, who closes her eyes and leans into it with a content hum. When she moves back, JJ’s eyes open halfway, watching Emily through her heavy lids. The blonde’s hand comes up to brush away strands of Emily’s hair before settling on her cheek, drawing her thumb into her cheekbone, and Emily melts into her touch.

“What was that about?” JJ asks, and underneath her teasing tone is a softer implication, because even when they’re alone, in the intimacy of their shared bedroom, with the lights dimmed and the boys sleeping on the floor above them, Emily rarely seems so vulnerable. 

“Nothing,” is Emily’s response, a gentle murmur, nuzzling JJ’s hand before another shy, “Can I kiss you again?”

And JJ laughs, because, “Of course, Em,” and Emily presses a chaste kiss to her wife’s hand before holding it out in front of her almost reverently, thumb rubbing gentle circles over JJ’s knuckles.

“I love you,” Emily says, almost as an afterthought, and JJ blinks.

“I know,” she says. “I love you, too.”

Emily nods, eyes still focused on her wife’s hand, and she looks back up to meet sapphire eyes.

“I love you so much,” comes out in a bare whisper, and JJ’s eyes soften.

“Kiss me again,” she says, shifting her body up more comfortably against their headboard, and Emily swings her leg around JJ’s hips so that she’s straddling her on top. 

The blonde settles her left hand on Emily’s hip before tangling her right hand in her dark hair, pressing them together for another kiss. When they break apart, Emily’s eyes are so much darker than JJ can remember, and her hand lingers in Emily’s hair.

“You know you can tell me anything, right?” JJ asks.

Emily’s gaze drops from her eyes, and JJ rubs her hip with her thumb. 

“Hey,” she says gently. “It’s just me.”

Because even after sixteen years of working together, five years of dating, and three years of marriage, Emily Prentiss is still afraid of feeling, afraid of falling too deep into her heart, afraid of losing control, and right now, she looks like a deer in headlights. JJ gently nudges their foreheads together, and she presses into her wife’s. The brunette exhales, and her eyes flutter closed.

“I love you,” Emily repeats, and JJ frowns slightly because that’s the third time her wife has said those exact words. 

She opens her mouth to pose another question, but Emily swoops in with another kiss, this one a little more rough than the previous, nipping gently at JJ’s bottom lip before tracing her teeth with her tongue, and surprised at the dominance, JJ leans into it, letting Emily’s hands tangle in her hair for a moment longer before JJ pulls away. Emily lets out a questioning mewl as JJ pushes her back, tongue flicking out to lick her lips, and the blonde raises an eyebrow.

“This isn’t going any further until you tell me what’s wrong,” she says before softening a bit. “You’re scaring me, Em.”

Emily pouts a little before exhaling, and she lifts a hand to gently trace JJ’s cheek.

“Is there something wrong with telling my wife I love her?” Emily teases, but JJ stands undeterred, only watching her with a raised eyebrow and nothing else.

_ As expected, _ Emily muses, dropping her facade. JJ is one of the few people she knows who can see right through her and has the patience to win a waiting game with her. Truth be told, Emily doesn’t know what’s wrong, doesn’t know how to explain the sudden heaviness in her chest and the fear lurking in the back of her mind.

“I just really love you,” Emily says, and she cringes at how pathetically needy it comes out.

But JJ doesn’t say anything, just sits there, rubbing tight, gentle circles onto Emily’s knees and watching with those big doe eyes. Instinctively, Emily’s hand flies up to bite her thumbnail, but JJ almost reflexively catches her wrist and brings it back down, Emily flushing at the action.

“I feel like I don’t say it enough,” she begins and immediately retracts that statement. “Like I say it every morning, when we wake up, when we get coffee, when we arrive at work, at lunch, before bed, but. But you don’t know.”

JJ is still quiet, waiting, gently tracing unidentifiable patterns on Emily’s wrist as the FBI Director struggles to find her usual eloquence, gone in the face of sun-kissed skin, tousled gold hair, and those all-knowing eyes.

“There’s a little space in my head just for you,” Emily whispers, “where I keep your touch, your smile, your mind.”

She has to close her eyes for this next part, though, because Emily Prentiss doesn’t deal with being vulnerable very well and still clings to any sort of control she may hold, and despite years of JJ’s blue  _ I love you _ s, she is afraid she will see a mocking sapphire in her eyes.

“You are everything to me,” Emily whispers, “and so much more. I don’t know how else to explain it.”

Emily holds her breath and waits. JJ’s thumb stills in its circles, and she feels its warmth leave her skin. It returns as a gentle touch on her cheek, thumb brushing over her cheekbone and palm cupping her jaw, and Emily feels JJ’s other arm snake around her hip and to her back.

“Em,” JJ breathes.

Emily melts into JJ’s tight embrace, burying her face into blonde curls and inhaling that vanilla cinnamon-tinged scent, the one that smells like whenever Emily comes home after extended meetings to see JJ curled up with the boys on the couch with mugs of steaming cocoa in their hands, the one that smells like the mornings when Emily wakes up after her wife and finds her in the kitchen, pancakes on the griddle, and Emily can sneak up behind her and slip her arms around her waist and tuck her face in sleep-tousled gold, the one that smells so perfectly of JJ.

And right now, JJ’s hold on Emily is tight, pressing their bodies together as much as possible. Emily’s hands are secure around JJ’s back and on her shoulders, JJ’s legs raised to hook around Emily’s hips, and in this moment, it is just the two of them and the scent of vanilla and cinnamon and lavender and home.

“You have my heart, Emily,” JJ murmurs. “You always had. Don’t ever doubt that.”

And with the two of them so close against each other, close enough to feel hear her heartbeat, Emily believes her, and she lets go.

**Author's Note:**

> it's my birthday and i get to pick the emotional support sapphic couple


End file.
